Bart Riley is the third-generation of proprietor of Riley Meats, a specialty meat processor in Butte, Montana.

Riley Meats is the quintessential family business, big enough to provide a good living to the Riley family, but not big enough to require multiple employees and the headaches and stress thereof.

As the Riley family’s specialty meats are sold to restaurants and individuals throughout the West, the business is thus subject to being governed by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

For 36 years inspectors found little or no fault with the Riley Meats facilities, but then one day a new inspector arrived on the scene, bringing with him a 12-year reign of bureaucratic terror. When Bart Riley resisted the terror, he found that his family business was but one of many being targeted by USDA.

The story of this apparent campaign of bureaucratic terrorism was picked up David McCumber, Editor of the Montana Standard newspaper, and presented in a two-part series which may be accessed via the following links.